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New Scientist Live

First graphene radio broadcast is a wireless wonder

THREE letters beamed across a lab bench may spark a wireless revolution. A transmission of “IBM” was received by the first working radio chip to be made from graphene – sheets of carbon, each just one atom thick.

In 2011, IBM researchers made a radio microchip with graphene transistors, but placing necessary metal components on top of the transistors damaged them, and the chip could not receive a signal.

With funding from the US Pentagon’s defence research arm, Shu-Jen Han’s team at IBM’s lab in Yorktown Heights, New York, found a way to put the metal parts on the chip first and then add the transistors. The device worked perfectly, they claim (Nature Communications, doi.org/q9k).

The graphene-based circuit uses less power than normal chips, making it attractive for use in wearable radio devices wanted for the US military.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Graphene radio is a wireless wonder”